Design Rules for Gentlemen

[Please note: I copied what we had so far into a new thread. Please do not answer to this post. I´ll update the rules should we agree on something new. Thank you. I moved the old thread to our archives.]

Point 1: Hull strength.
a) Relative composite hull strength should not drop below 1.00 except for the light fast combattants (<6000 tons standard; >24kn)
b) Relative cross-sectional hull strength of light fast combattants of 0-3,000 tons standard should not drop below 0.5
c) In general, light fast combattants of 3,001-4,500 tons standard can have a minimum relative composite hull strength of 0.75 as long as it does not cross the limit as given in point 1b.
d) In general, light fast combattants between 4500 tons and 6000 tons standard can have a minimum relative composite hull strength of 0.9

Point 3: Switching mains and secondaries.
Can only be done with regular main and secondary turrets (use of the funky options should be avoided) and when no superfiring main guns are present. Edit the design so it properly gives the main guns first and the secondaries second, armor and "shells needed to sink ship" bits to make it easier to read.

Point 4: Stability.
Try to avoid designing ships with a stability of 1.00 since the bug might kick in and increase the number of torpedoes your ship can take. Hopefully this has been sorted out with the next version of Spring Sharp. Note that with Springstyle you will get a stability warning at the point where Spring Sharp encounters the bug. Spring Sharp does not give a stability warning at that point.

Point 5: Block Coefficient
No bc less than 0.38 is allowed. Only small high speed planing or semi-planing hulls are allowed to have a bc smaller than that.

Point 6: In the regard of simming a carrier that uses bulges, one should use the hull beam to calculate the number of planes (lenght x beam / 750 for imperial units) and not the beam over the bulges.

Ships age

Ships age. Thus there had been two rules in the earlier versions of our standard rules that dealt with that issue. By doing so they also added to the general idea of maintenance and upkeep costs for a fleet.

Any ship ages. Its combat ability degrades and time and technology advances. For each year over 15 that a ship has not been refitted, it suffers a 5% penalty to its combat performance. Note that a ship may be refitted at any time, subject to any relevant naval treaty restrictions.

For detailed rules on how to perform a refit check our rules over here.

Once a ship is refitted for life extension, it is no longer subject to the combat penalties mentioned above.

Rebuilds for life extension:

Although a refit does extend the career of a warship, she will need more extensive work after thirty years of service in order to remain effective, regardless of earlier life extension refits. For each year over thirty that the ship has been in commission, she will suffer a 5% penalty to all aspects of her operation (combat, speed, damage control, etc) as parts simply wear out. Note that a ship may be rebuilt at any time, subject to the terms of relevant naval treaties. A rebuild will require that the ship be dry-docked.

For detailed rules on how to perform a rebuild check our rules over here.

Regardless of what does take place, the ship’s weight may not be increased by more than 20%.

Once rebuilt, the ship is essentially new again; she will not require a refit for 15 years, nor rebuilding for another 30.